1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the treatment of grain or milling intermediates (for example, semolina) to be used in the production of cake flour, to the resultant wheat or intermediate and to the cakes, sponges and like products made from the resultant flour.
Cake flours are pale in colour and usually of fine granularity; they normally have a protein content of between 6% and 9% although for cakes containing dried fruit or cherries a flour having a protein content of up to 14% is often preferred. For some 40 years, however, it has been known that by using a flour which has been chlorinated, that is a flour that has been exposed to chlorine gas, cakes containing an increased ratio by weight of sugar to flour can be made. Such cakes can contain from 0.9 to 1.4 parts by weight of sugar to each 1 part by weight of flour and are referred to, in the flour-confectionery industry, simply as "high ratio" or "high sugar" cakes. The chlorinated flour is often referred to as "high ratio flour". If unchlorinated flour is substituted for chlorinated flour in a high ratio formula, the resultant cake is deficient in one or more desirable qualities; for example, it may collapse on leaving the oven or it may contain cores or streaks of a totally different consistency to the remainder of the crumb of the cake. The chlorination of flour has a number of chemical and physical effects; namely it denatures some of the proteins, bleaches the pigments and may effect the starch and such water-soluble components as proteins and pentosans. The nature of these effects is not fully understood.
Although the chlorination of flour for the purpose of cake-making has not been shown to be a hazard to health, some countries, including most of those within the European Economic Community, avoid its use. In Great Britain, however, it is commercially important and its discontinuance, for whatever reason, would be a source of considerable difficulty for the flour-confectionery industry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been proposed, inter alia in United Kingdom Patent Specification No. 1,110,711 to heat cake flour in order to produce a flour which does not require chlorination.
An alternative treatment has now been found by which flour suitable as a replacement for chlorinated flour can be produced.
Moderate heat treatment of wheat at temperatures of about 50.degree. to 80.degree.C has long been known to have mild effects on the wheat protein which give an improvement in the bread-making properties of the flour. The treatment now proposed consists of heating the wheat, or the intermediate, at a higher temperature in order to improve the cake-making properties of the flour milled from it.